Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Panic

I have to admit, I am a pretty calm parent. There are few things that really get me concerned and injuries to my children are not generally one of them. For example, when Chase split his forehead open, instead of going to the ER, I super glued it back together. I must have that gene where my cool and collected side kicks in when something bad happens.

First, let me start by saying that I can count on both hands the number of times I have not been home to get the kids off to school. It is rare. This morning was one of them. Macie had to sing at a Glee function for a community group so she and I left the house at 6:30. I packed lunches last night, laid out clothes for everyone, put peanut free snacks in the backpacks and left Stew a note about the boys pills.

I arrived back home around 9:10, Stew had gotten the boys on the bus and he was on his way to take Avery to school and then stop by the chiropractor. He threw his back out this weekend and has been pretty much on the couch with ice ever since. We recently switched Owen to a new medication, a pill instead of the patch. Originally the doctor gave me a 10mg pill but upped his dosage to 20mg and then 30mg after we watched him for a few days. We had simply been giving him 3 of the 10 mg pills until they ran out. Over the weekend I filled the new prescription from the doctor for the 30mg dose. I am sure you can see where I am going with this. I talked to Stew around 9 and he asked me how many pills he needed to give Owen. I told him one and he said "uh-oh." He said " I gave him 2. I know he thought he was still giving him the 10mg pills and the last time Stew had given them we had only upped his dosage to 20mg. That meant he had accidentally given him 2x the amount of medication that he normally takes! I immediately went into emergency mode.

I called the school nurse and explained what happened. She told me to call his doctor. I called the regular number and the urgent number and waited 5 minutes without an answer. I could feel my adrenaline begin to race as I dialed poison control. I spoke with a lovely and very calm nurse name Rosanna. She conferenced the nurse at school and asked her to pull Owen from his class. She had her check his pulse and blood pressure and told her things to look for throughout the day. Thankfully, even 60mg is within therapeutic range but was still a lot for his 60 pound body. She reassured me that since he had already been on the medication for 2 weeks that his body would likely handle it well. Had he not already been on it, there could have been more complications. I have since talked to the school nurse twice and his heart rate and blood pressure are fine. I am sure Owen is wondering what all the fuss is about.

Once I hung up and knew he would be ok, I started to cry. I was so relieved that it almost made me sick. I called Stew back and told him. He was apologetic, and though it was a complete mistake, I was glad to hear it anyway. I really have never been faced with a situation that something serious could be wrong with my child. We've had our share of scrapes, cuts, stitches, staples and broken bones. We are very familiar with the ER. Those things just seem like such easy fixes to me. This one really scared me. I am heading to school shortly to have lunch with Owen and see him for myself. I'll feel normal again once I lay my own eyes on him and give him a big hug.

PS-I can't say enough about poison control and the school nurse. I'm sure they see this a lot. Thankfully, I don't and they were able to guide me through it.

PSS-Talked to the doctor after Poison Control and he said he and his wife have done the same thing 2x to their son! That made me feel a little better!